Blind Endeavours one-shot: Amusement
by Wiz-Chic
Summary: Takes place during part 5. A gift-fic to my poster maker!


**Here it is! The one shot for Yixuro Who made the beautiful poster for 6. this is short but sweet and takes place before the finale of part 5 during one of Sherlock and Madeline's weekend dates.**

**thank you to Julie for beta-ing!**

**Enjoy :) **

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Sherlock Holmes did not do these sorts of things. This was not his hobby, this was not his interest, and unless there was a dead body present (which unfortunately there wasn't), this was not his place. There was only one person to blame—

And boy, did he.

"And then I want to go to the carousel, and then I want to get an elephant ear, and then I want to get more cotton candy..." Madeline jumped excitedly as she clutched his arm, her mouth blue from the latest cotton candy she'd devoured In seconds.

The lights against the night sky could induce a seizure, the annoying tunes coming from the rides gave him a headache, and the children running around and the couples making out made him want to vomit. But there she was, in her short little shorts and oversized sweater, jumping around like a child at a...well, at an amusement park. And that was exactly where they were.

_I'm never letting her pick out a date location again_, Sherlock thought, still trying to figure out what the hell elephant ears were anyways.

"You've had enough cotton candy," Sherlock mumbled, eyeing her tan legs as they walked. "The last thing you need is more hyper excitement."

"Boy, you are so grumpy." Madeline wrapped her arms around him with a wide smile; he couldn't ruin tonight for her even if he tried, which, shockingly, he wasn't trying to. "You should learn to let loose and be one of the people, Sherlock—oh...my..." she breathed, stopping abruptly, "god."

Sherlock looked at Madeline questioningly, until his eyes found where her wide, glossy ones had landed.

And there it was. The 5 foot tall, 3 foot wide stuffed teddy bear with happy eyes. The ultimate grand prize to whoever could hit the large, over-sized hammer the hardest on the gavel, allowing the arrow to reach to the top of the scale.

"Oh no…" Sherlock groaned. "Madeline, no. These silly games are all fixed so you never win."

"I want that bear," she said in her trance, beginning to breath heavily. "Sherlock, I'm going to get that bear."

"Madeline," he argued logically, "you lack any significant upper body strength. Due to your extensive ballet training, any chance of you succeeding at this game would have to have the probability of the majority of your strength coming from the lower half of your body where it mostly resides. And even so, these games are fixed by—"

"Sherlock, I don't care," Madeline replied quickly, bouncing on her feet as she took his shirt sleeve and pulled him towards the game, "I'm going to win it!"

Pulling out far too much money—more than enough for what the bear was actually worth—she handed it to the worker.

"Hey there, love!" he said with a wide smile as he took the money, his yellow teeth glimmering against the lights. "Want to give it a shot?"

"Can't you just give her the bear?" Sherlock sighed impatiently, wishing she'd never laid eyes on that bear.

"'Fraid not, son!" The worker smiled at her thin arms as she took off her sweater and handed it to Sherlock. "Someone's gotta get that arrow to the top!"

"Alright!" Madeline grabbed the hammer. "Here we go!"

She readied herself and hit the pad. Not surprising to anyone there, it barely reached the first bar. But the girl was persistent; she wanted her bear and would go until the money ran out or the worker got tired of her presence and shooed her away.

Sherlock watched as she bit her lip and grunted as she threw the hammer down. And even though each time she would barely lift the bar on the scale, her excitement and hope never wavered. It was a reminder to him how optimistic and pure hearted she was, and suddenly, subconsciously, he found himself rooting for her, hoping that by some miracle, she would reach that bar at the top of the scale.

Of course, he knew this would never happen, as he saw the worker's foot standing on a wire protruding from the scale, clearly determining the pressure allowed to allow the bar on the scale to move. Sherlock had half a mind to deduce this middle-aged, cheating-on-his-wife, very-much-likely-to-develop-heart-disease porn-addict into submission and fear of his wrath, but there was a sense of whimsy about the night that Madeline always brought with her—and for once, he didn't want to spoil it…god only knew how much longer in her life she would have to enjoy it.

The minutes went by, but she refused to give up. Sherlock waited patiently, much to Madeline's confusion. Typically by this point he would have taken the situation into his own hands- bust instead he waited patiently with a look of non-chalance. Giving a shrug, she wiped her brow and bent over, taking a moment to mentally prepare herself. She had failed to notice the worker eyeing her chest as it threatened to spill from her t-shirt—but Sherlock didn't.

And that was the end of his self control.

As if a fire were lit under him, Sherlock's fists clenched, his teeth gritted as he ground down on his jaw, his eyes wide, and a fire grew in his belly as he watched the worker ogle Madeline, unbeknownst to her.

He felt if ever there were a time to not lose his temper, this was it.

It was too bad Sherlock wasn't very logical when angered.

"Oy! What do you think you're doing, mate!" the worker gasped as he felt himself lifted off the ground and shaken by the collar, looking down at the angry pale man who was glaring holes through his head, growling a deep noise that he'd only heard animals make. Seeing the frightening fire in his eyes, the pudgy worker was sure he was done for.

Finally, at the sound of a familiar growl, Madeline looked up and paid attention, but all she could see on the other side of the game was the back half of Sherlock and the worker blocked off entirely by the scale. "Sherlock? Everything okay?"

Slowly, Sherlock began to lower the frightened worker (who he'd deduced was only a moment or two away from soiling himself) back down to the ground. "Quite fine." He spat from between his teeth. Quickly, Sherlock stabbed the heel of his shoe into the worker's toes.

"OW!" he gasped in pain, his foot releasing the pressure tube, allowing it to have free reign, as he held his foot, wrapping his hands around his muddy shoes. "Jesus Christ!"

"What's going on over there?"

"Nothing!" Sherlock replied quickly, poking his head out from behind the scale. He smiled much too innocently as the worker fell back on his bum. "Continue." Bringing his attention back to the crooked man, Sherlock bent forward and spoke in a low, threatening tone, "I've only broken your second toe. If I catch you prolonging a well-deserved win for another young lady only in order to observe her body like this is a meat market and not a carnival, I will break the rest of your nine toes one by one and then happily move on to each of your fingers with that _lovely _little gavel you have there." The worker looked back at the psychotic man, whose eyes were bright and filled with a confident insanity that shook him to his core, and it was when the pale man smiled, showing all of his teeth, that the worker knew he would be crazy enough to keep to his word. "Do I make myself clear…_mate?_"

The moment the worker nodded, his jaw still slack, Madeline's squeals due to the bar reaching the top could be heard for miles as couples and children all around began to stop and cheer for her as she celebrated her win, the lights and music of the game loud and obnoxious. The worker flinched as Sherlock quickly moved away from him.

"I won! I won! I won!" Madeline chanted. The moment Sherlock came into view, she jumped into his arms in a rare moment of public affection and wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing him, her feet dangling. Placing a kiss on his cheek, to which he shyly looked around to assure not many had noticed, she beamed, looking up at him with a brightness in her eyes. "Did you see that, I won!"

Sherlock thought for a moment to break the news to her that the game was in fact impossible to win or lose because there was no fair probability, and that in fact her winning had everything to do with Sherlock undoing the hack that had been done rather than the impossibility of her magically possessing that much strength after nearly 20 tries—

But he didn't want to ruin this for her. Not this time.

"Congratulations I believe are in order." He smiled lightly down at her, placing his hands on her shoulders and taking unusual pride in knowing he was her silent hero. "You've proved me wrong. I count myself defeated." Madeline smiled up at him widely and with hopeful eyes; he'd never made such an admittance before. "Well then, collect your prize?"

"Don't mind if I do," she said softly. Standing on her tippy toes, Madeline placed her lips softly against Sherlock's—but only for a moment. She didn't want to make him too uncomfortable in public, even though no one was paying them any attention.

"I was assuming it was the bear," Sherlock breathed against her lips, keeping his collected façade together.

Madeline shook her head with a smile. "I don't need that teddy bear. I have my very own grumpy bear."

"That's ridiculously sentimental of you, I resent your new title of me, and you do realize that you spent all that money and time to walk away with nothing-"

"You're cuddling me tonight, beast." Madeline continued with a smile, intertwining her arm in his as if she hadn't heard a word he just said except for the nickname comment.

"Oh, joy," Sherlock groaned sarcastically, only to receive a smack on his chest from her which he accepted with a smirk. As they walked away from the game, Sherlock placed his hand on the back of Madeline's neck protectively as they left the amusement park.

Madeline thought it would be a good time to tell him that even though he didn't know it, Sherlock Holmes cuddled in his sleep. But she saw he was rather proud of himself for defending her from the creepy park worker and de-frauding the game all in one go, and thought it had all been done without her knowledge, like a silent and secret present, and she didn't want to ruin his moment of heroism for him. Not this time. ...Not ever.

**Fin.**


End file.
